Welfare reform: 'most radical shake-up for 60 years'

Iain Duncan Smith's radical welfare bill, perhaps the most significant reshaping of the welfare state in 60 years, aims to simplify the system of subsidies that covers everything from income support to housing benefit to sickness payments.

For the government the aim is to remove the benefit traps that see some people lose 90p in every extra pound they earn as means-tested benefits are withdrawn. The new system will be paid for by deep cuts in welfare, as ministers push through savings of £18bn over the next four years. Read More: